A look back: This week in Shelter Island history
10 YEARS AGO
Island’s 1st ‘Ms. MD’
Doctor Kathleen Marshall joined her husband Dr. Christopher Marshall in working at the Island Medical Center during the summer of 2003, becoming the first female doctor to practice here. She saw six patients during her first day and admitted some initial jitters, about taking on the practice with her husband, but the pair ended up working on the Island together for several years before they relocated to Virginia.
POSTSCRIPT: Island Urgent Medical Care, a chain of medical offices throughout Long Island, now oversees patient care at the medical center while Dr. Peter Kelt has a private practice in the same building.
20 YEARS AGO
Worst dream
A Peter Waldner cartoon from August 5, 1993, imagined Shelter Island in the year 2025. The vision, entitled “worst dream” envisioned a littered Island with a bridge to Greenport, a cheap honky tonk suburbia shop, the McIslander serving McEel sandwiches, L. Lechjet Skis and the Landlubber Bar & Grill.
POSTSCRIPT: It may not be 2025 yet, but that’s not so far off and despite the Island enduring more traffic, there’s still no signs of the other changes, nor any change in attitude among residents about what makes this place so special.
30 YEARS AGO
LILCO installed new cable near tragic accident site
Following a tragic boat accident that took the lives of three people after the mast of a sailboat struck a 2,400-volt cable in the lagoon in Westmoreland Farm weeks earlier, the Public Service Commission ordered that electricity be cut until new cabling could be placed underground. Michael Conway and Mary Barry had been electrocuted in the accident and Mr. Conway’s father, George, had died trying to rescue the pair. He suffered a heart attack in the water and drowned, according to an autopsy report.
POSTSCRIPT: LILCO’s successor, Long Island Power Authority is nearing completion of a new cable to provide power to the Island via an underground cable running between here and Southold Town. The work is expected to be completed toward the end of August.
40 YEARS AGO
A four-year study won county and state approval 40 years ago as it recommended sewers for several East End areas, including parts of Shelter Island. But even then the study gave preference to sewers for Greenport, Riverhead and Westhampton Beach, placing on the back-burner any plans on Shelter Island. Local officials then concluded that aside from Shelter Island Heights, the need for a central sewage system could be at least 50 years away given that zoning had dramatically reduced Island development. But it was recognized that the Heights system would need modernization which it has undergone through the years. The Heights Property Owners Corporation has twice explored linking its system to Greenport. The first time, the HPOC decided it was too costly and last year, before any serious exploration could take place, the Village let it be known through Mayor David Nyce that for environmental reasons, it would sooner extend service east and west on the North Fork than run sewer lines under Greenport Harbor.
POSTSCRIPT: There’s zero possibility that a central sewer system would be installed on Shelter Island, but there have been discussions about small neighborhood systems similar to ones being installed in parts of Florida. But even that seems a long way off for residents outside of the Heights.
